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Alternatives to Jail and Treatment Possibilities

History

Despite the addition of a two hundred and fifty-bed addition to the Larimer County Jail in 2001, the county faced jail over crowding only one year later. In 2002, Larimer County Facilities Manager, David Spencer, recommended to the Board of County Commissioners that Criminal Justice Consultant, David Bennett, along with Dennis Liebert of Liebert and Associates, be hired to study and make recommendations to help solve the issues of the increasing jail population.

David Bennett, recommended several changes to the Criminal Justice System in Larimer County, noting that no one change would have a significant impact in the overall reduction of the jail population. After reading the recommendations by David, it became obvious to the Sheriff and the Commissioners that the most effective approach was to implement several small changes within the Criminal Justice System to reduce the demand for jail beds. These small changes came with a high price tag and forced the Commissioners to consider raising a significant amount of funding through a tax increase to expand the jail and develop alternative program facilities. A ballot issue was presented to the public in November 2006 and defeated. After the defeat of the ballot initiative, the Commissioners implemented several less costly changes, which have temporarily kept the jail population in check. The changes that have occurred to date are:

  • Reduce the number of days a person would have to wait until they were assigned to a District Court by three days,
  • Implement an early release from jail for inmates who had served 75-percent of their sentence and were not considered a danger to the community.
  • Eliminate of the requirement for individuals to be held in jail on a summons until bonding was implemented by some of the law enforcement agencies.

While the modifications to the system evolved, the average daily population in the jail increased to an all time high of five hundred and twelve inmates in 2005, which caused a backlog in the Sheriff's Work Release program. At one point, there were 165 people sentenced to Work Release who could not serve their time because there was no space available and they were required to wait up to six months before serving their jail time.

Since 2005, an expansion to the Community Corrections building was completed and modifications were made to the Alternative Sentencing Building to increase the number of Work Release beds. This increase in the number of available beds has made a significant impact on reducing the waiting period for individuals in the Work Release program. Requiring an individual to complete their sentencing immediately is one deterrent to committing a crime again.

In 2007, the increase in jail beds within the Sheriff's Alternative Programs saved over 61,000 (or sixty-one-thousand) jail-bed days in Larimer County. The average cost of an individual serving time in an alternative Program is approximately $ 25 per day verses $104 per day in the county jail. Utilizing the Alternative Program beds resulted in an overall savings of approximately $5-million dollars for the County.

  • Hiring additional staff in Pretrial Services and the creation of Pretrial Bond Commissioners proved to assist in reducing the number of inmates in the jail as well.

The number of individuals released on bond and placed under pretrial supervision has increased from 500 a few years ago to 1550 actively supervised by the end of 2007. The ability to release and supervise defendants on bond has kept the length of stay for inmates in jail low and prevented the jail inmate population from increasing rapidly. The defendants under Pretrial Supervision has also shown a positive 'return to Court' rate approaching 98 percent. Pretrial Supervision has helped reduce the burden of Bench Warrants for 'Failure to Appear,' including reducing the cost to law enforcement for re-arrest, jailing and adding to the clogged Court dockets.

  • The creation of the Alternatives to Incarceration for Individuals with Mental Health Needs Program (AIIM) has had an impact on reducing the jail population by addressing recidivism for people with mental health illnesses.

As an example, the AIIM Program had 21participants who occupied over 3700 jail-bed days in the year prior to the creation of this Program. After participation in the AIIM Program, the jail bed days were reduced to just over 500 in the following year, which resulted in a seven fold cost savings for the County for incarceration. The program would be larger if funds were available. Judges readily accept AIIM as an effective strategy for reducing jail time for new offenses and are continuously trying to get more people into the program.

The programs mentioned above are examples of how Larimer County has reduced the jail population over the last couple of years. However, this does not include an explanation of how the Sheriff's Office and other Larimer County Departments have worked collaboratively together to save the taxpayers enormous sums of money. In reviewing the incarceration rates and the number of people in jail in relationship to the population, the overall incarceration rate for Larimer County is low. In fact, Larimer County is 116 inmates below the average for the state of Colorado, and 83 inmates below the national incarceration average. If Larimer County matched the state average for incarceration rate, the jail population would increase by nearly 325 additional inmates per day and the County would need an additional $12-million dollars to fund jail expenses per year.

By expanding these alternatives to incarceration and other programs, Larimer County has saved money, yet not sacrificed community safety. The inmates participating in these alternative programs are not identified as dangerous and must meet certain criteria for acceptance into the programs. In fact, the supervision of these inmates does not require law enforcement expertise and is done by civilian staff.

Recidivism

The Alternative and Treatment Program Sub-committee for the Larimer County Criminal Justice Advisory Committee was established to find solutions to further reduce recidivism of individuals involved in the Criminal Justice System, especially those with mental illness and/or substance use disorders. The members of the sub-committee include:

  • Kathy Snell, Director of Larimer County Division of Health and Human Services.
  • Carol Plock, Executive Director for the Health District of Northern Larimer County. Randy Ratliff, Executive Director of Larimer Center for Mental Health.
  • Joe Ferrando, Director of Larimer County Community Corrections.
  • Kendall Alexander, Executive Director for Island Grove.
  • Gary Darling, Criminal Justice Services Division Director for Larimer County.

For the last three years, recidivism rate in the Larimer County Detention Center has remained at nearly sixty percent. Upon further research of who is at most risk of recidivating, it became clear that individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders are among the highest. The research also showed that:

  • Individuals with a co-occurring substance abuse disorder and a mental illness have a recidivism rate of 81-percent,
  • Individuals with only a substance use disorder have a recidivism rate of 69-percent,
  • Individuals with only a mental illness have a recidivism rate of 56-percent.
  • The recidivism rate for those without mental illness or a substance use disorder drops to 44-percent.

The research clearly shows that individuals with mental illness and/or substance abuse issues are at greatest risk of recidivism and in need of early identification and residential and/or outpatient treatment. Early assessment not only help the individual get the care he or she needs, but will assist the Courts in placing individuals within the best program to address their needs and to aid in creating a plan for their recovery.

Facilities

Larimer County has a population of approximately 280,000 people. Yet, there is no detox or residential treatment facility for substance abuse. Larimer County also does not have an Acute Treatment Facility (ATU) for individuals who experience a mental health crisis, yet taxpayers continue to pay for incarceration of these same individuals in the Larimer County Detention Center at a cost of $104 each day. Larimer County has identified, conservatively, that 3,600 people currently involved in the Criminal Justice System in Larimer County have a mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder. Many of these individuals have been assessed and caseworkers are aware of their need for inpatient substance abuse treatment; however, there is virtually none of these services available in Larimer County.

The general population of Larimer County and incarcerated individuals would be well served by a combined services facility where mental health and substance use disorder assessments are conducted; residential treatment, detoxification services and ATU crisis services are provided. The individuals within the criminal justice system, who are participating in the Short Term Intensive Remedial Residential Treatment (STIRRT) and Intensive Residential Treatment (IRT) Programs at Larimer County Community Corrections would be better served in a residential treatment facility, away from others serving time in Community Corrections who do not have similar needs.

In summary, a combined services center as described above, is needed to not only address the needs of the criminal justice system, but to make detoxification services available to all citizens in the community, without involvement of the criminal justice system. The ideal site would be in close proximity to the existing Detention Center, Community Corrections and other facilities that offer alternatives to jail.

Services

Services ranging from assessment of mental health and/or substance use disorders among those involved with the criminal justice system and the public must occur as soon as possible to aid in recovery. Once an appropriate assessment is completed, a treatment program can be developed to ensure the greatest success for recovery by the individual. The assessments and program development will be overseen by a psychiatrist, working directly with therapists and caseworkers.

The programs used in a combined services center will be based upon Evidence Based Practices and will meet the requirements of the Colorado Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division. Evidence Based Programs such as Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment, (CBT) Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT) and Forensic Intensive Case Management (FICM) are examples of Evidence Based Programs that may be integrated into the local system.

Specialty courts, such as a 'mental health court', are becoming more popular in Colorado and across the nation, due to the positive results in the reduction of recidivism. The mental health courts success is due in part to an increased contact with individuals and treatment providers. Currently Larimer County lacks the infrastructure needed to support these specialty courts across the treatment spectrum. Through the development of Evidence Based treatment programs and building combined services facility to house individuals needing residential treatment, Larimer County can more effectively work with those individuals coming out of the Courts and into Probation.

The Alternative and Treatment Sub-committee will continue to further develop treatment models and a ten-year plan to reduce recidivism among incarcerated individuals with mental health and substance use disorders. If the current ballot issue passes, a team of professionals will be hired to develop a comprehensive program, along with the Policies and Procedures needed for the operation of the facility.

The Vision

Create solutions to reduce recidivism in the local Criminal Justice System by effectively addressing mental illness and substance use disorders.

Resulting in offenders receiving effective treatment and becoming contributors to the economy of the community, which may result in a reduction in the use of the Criminal Justice System, reduction in jail stays, and delaying the need for additional jail beds.